One of the US datacenters we use is reallocating IP addresses to their servers and proceeding to needed migrations. If you notice that you cannot upload to your site through FTP, it might be that your IP has changed. Please open a support ticket immediately to obtain your new IP information. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. As this was done with short notice, we have not been able to inform each client individually.

The Management

www.sinohosting.net

We are pleased to announce that we are now offering US-based VPS plans. These plans are very competitive in terms of pricing, and we are using top datacenters facilities in Houston and Atlanta to host these servers. For more details please check www.sinohosting.net/us-vps.php

It seems that the ICANN is finally taking the domain tasting problem seriously. Less than six months after charging a 20 cents fee on domain refunds for domain returned within the five day grace period, new limits are now set for each registrar in terms of domains that can be returned monthly. Under the new rules, domain registrars can only return 50 domains or 10% of registered domains, whichever is greater, each month within the 5 day grace period and get a full refund.

This should help dramatically reduce the domain tasting issues that have been harming the industry, as registrars will enable more controls over the domainers who have been using that tactic to generate advertising revenues.

It appears that leading US domain registration firm and web host Godaddy.com has been blocked in China. Trying to access today the site returns an error/timeout page (tested in Shanghai on China Telecom network). Many clients of Godaddy and other large overseas hosts (Yahoo Small Business, Hostmonster, Lunarpages etc.) have seen their specific servers blocked from time to time but this is probably the first time that the host’s domain itself is not accessible from China. No indication whether this is temporarily or not.

If you are a Godaddy user and considering a move to a host that will allow your sites to be accessible in China, you can consider us! Make sure to use “godaddy” as a coupon when placing the order online, to get a 10% discount. Please note that this coupon is only for sites previously hosted at godaddy.com, and is available for shared plans (China & US, both Linux and Windows). The promotion is valid till September 30th, 2008.

I have been rather astonished to read this report where after “investigations” an ICANN-sponsorized panel found no evidence of domain snatching…

Now I KNOW and many people do as know of the existence of this practice. Almost monthly we have clients who, after conducting a WHOIS look up for a domain, find the domain registered when they come back a few days later to get it registered. Most of these domains are so particular that the possibility of a coincidence just needs to be be dismissed. If that were a coincidence, why almost all those domains are registered by domainers, or for the luckiest, released to public domain after five days? There is clearly some malpractice going on there.

Now the domain tasting part. To justify not levying the 20 cents for domain returned, the same reports says that “many parties complained that the fee would penalize legitimate returns, such as ones to correct typos”. First, how many registrants do know at the first place that they can return domains within five days, and how many actually have this option from the registrar or reseller they purchase the domain from? Second, I believe that the incidence of charging 20 cents to someone who registered a domain in error, can completely be justified if at the same time it prevents or limits the companies involved in organized domain tasting, registering millions of domains, keeping them for five days with ads on them, returning them (and getting back their money) while keeping the better one (those which showed some traffic potential during the “tasting” period)…

We host over 60% of our clients sites in Singapore, against 20% in China and 20% shared between UK and the US. Singapore is our first recommendation to new clients when it comes to choosing their server location, and here are our five main reasons:

1-Although out of the Great Firewall (meaning slower access speed from mainland China), Singapore is geographically closer and under the same server conditions, sites hosted in Singapore are comparable in terms of speed to those hosted in Hong Kong, and relatively faster than those hosted in Europe and the United States.

2-By hosting in Singapore one is not required to register for an ICP license with the Chinese government-backed relevant organization (it is a must if you host in China though).

3-Singapore-based email servers carry more trust than Chinese ones (email from Chinese IPs have higher chances to be classifieds as spam).

4-Hong Kong seems to be the best alternative location, but hosting in Singapore is substantially cheaper than Hong Kong for almost the same benefits.

5-Singapore has world-class hosting infrastructure, which can not be compared to the options available in mainland China.